1952–present
Who Is Sharon Osbourne?
Sharon Osbourne is a British TV personality, music manager, and the widow of rock icon Ozzy Osbourne. Before they were married, Sharon helped Ozzy launch his successful solo career, and she later managed the Smashing Pumpkins and her daughter Kelly Osbourne, among others. Sharon and her family gained major media attention while appearing on the MTV reality series The Osbournes from 2002 through 2005. Since then, she has appeared on a variety of TV shows such as The X Factor, America’s Got Talent, and The Talk, which she left in controversy in 2021.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Sharon Rachel Osbourne
BORN: October 9, 1952
BIRTHPLACE: London, United Kingdom
SPOUSE: Ozzy Osbourne (1982–2025)
CHILDREN: Aimee, Kelly, and Jack
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Libra
Young Sharon Osbourne
Sharon Osbourne was born Sharon Rachel Levy on October 9, 1952, in London. The daughter of music manager and concert producer Don Arden, Sharon grew up surrounded by rock musicians.
As a teenager, she went to work for her father as a receptionist and later moved up in the business, working in promotions. In 1970, Arden began managing the heavy metal group Black Sabbath. Sharon’s introduction to the band’s lead singer, Ozzy Osbourne, when she was 18 would eventually change the course of her life.
Marriage to Ozzy Osbourne
Black Sabbath’s Ozzy Osbourne had a dark, demonic persona and was known for his wild antics on and off stage. In fact, he was kicked out of the group for his substance abuse problems in 1979. At that time, Sharon took him on as a client and became his manager. This move caused a rift between her and her father, one that took decades to mend.
Meanwhile, as Sharon helped Ozzy rebound from his firing and launch a successful solo career, the relationship between manager and musician grew from strictly professional to romantic. Still, their early days together were troubled by substance abuse and intense fights.
“Our fights were legendary,” she told The Guardian in 2001. “We’d beat the sh–– out of each other. At a gig, Ozzy would run off stage during a guitar solo to fight with me, then run back on to finish the song! We were in the gutter, morally, and I realized that if we both carried on, we’d wind up a washed-up pair of old drunks living in a hovel somewhere. So I stopped drinking.”
The couple were married on July 4, 1982, after which Sharon Levy officially became Sharon Osbourne. Over the next few years, Sharon and her husband welcomed three children: Aimee, born in 1983; Kelly, born in 1984; and Jack, born in 1985.
Despite their growing family, Sharon and Ozzy continued to navigate martial tumult. Their darkest day arrived in 1989 when Ozzy tried to strangle Sharon while under the influence of illicit substances. He was arrested and spent several months in a mental health facility after the incident. Although Sharon dropped the charges against her husband, she strongly considered divorcing the musician but ultimately decided against it.
For the next several decades, Sharon and Ozzy continued life together as romantic and business partners through his music career and their family’s reality TV show. Then, in May 2016, they announced their plans to divorce after 33 years of marriage. It was reported that the split came after Sharon learned of Ozzy’s alleged affair with a celebrity hairstylist.
However, two months later, the couple that had endured so many ups and downs together decided to make their relationship work. Late that July, Sharon announced their reconciliation on her show The Talk. “It’s been very hard... He’s very embarrassed and ashamed about his conduct,” she said. “I forgive, [but] it’s going to take a long time to trust. But you know, we’ve been together for 36 years, 34 of marriage, and it’s more than half of my life, and I just can’t think of my life without him... even though he is a dog!”
Ozzy, appearing on Good Morning America with their son, Jack, also said the marriage was not over. “It’s just a bump in the road,” he said. “It’s back on track again.”
The headline-grabbing couple remained united up until Ozzy’s death in July 2025, just weeks after they celebrated their 43rd wedding anniversary. “We never gave up on each other,” Sharon told People in 2022. “I mean, I wasn’t a saint. Ozzy wasn’t a saint. I gave him as good as he gave me. We’re just meant to be.”
Music Manager
Despite their personal problems, the Osbournes were a successful business team. Sharon helped launch and maintain Ozzy’s solo career, during which he sold millions of records. She also managed other rock acts, including her daughter Kelly Osbourne, the Smashing Pumpkins, and Lita Ford. As a concert producer, Sharon also created the hugely successful Ozzfest, a touring concert festival featuring a variety of new and established heavy metal bands.
Sharon Osbourne Extreme: My Autobiography by Sharon Osbourne
Unbreakable: My New Autobiography by Sharon Osbourne
Sharon Osbourne Survivor: My Story - The Next Chapter by Sharon Osbourne Kindle Edition
Revenge by Sharon Osbourne Kindle Edition
The Osbournes and More TV Shows
In the early 2000s, Sharon and her husband agreed to be featured on a episode of MTV’s Cribs, which showcased the lavish homes of the rich and famous. “We all kind of looked at each other and just felt there is some wonderful, serendipitous chaos and insanity in this house that people would eat up,” former MTV executive Van Toffler later told Variety.“What a loving, dysfunctional, chaotic, musical family they were. And it just hit us to keep shooting.”
The resulting reality show—centering on Sharon, Ozzy, and their two youngest children (Aimee declined to participate)—debuted in March 2002. Like a twisted, curse-filled version of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, The Osbournes quickly captivated audiences. Viewers were intrigued by shock-rocker Ozzy’s softer side as a doting, if somewhat spacey, father. Fans also loved Sharon’s blunt and direct parenting style and couldn’t help but watch Kelly and Jack as the teenagers battled their way through their sibling rivalries.
The Osbournes became a massive hit for the cable network as it averaged 5.3 million viewers per episode during Season 1 and became MTV’s highest-rated show. Sharon even earned an Emmy Award as one of the show’s producers when The Osbournes was named Outstanding Nonfiction Reality Program. The popularity of the series paved the way for a new segment of reality TV that focused on the daily lives of celebrities and pseudo-celebrities. Programs like The Simple Life with Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, Hogan Knows Best with Hulk Hogan and his family, Being Bobby Brown featuring Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston, and Keeping Up with the Kardashians all launched later that decade.
Sharon led renewal negotiations on behalf of her family for Season 2, and the subsequent deal was reportedly valued at as much as $20 million. The show’s second season followed the family matriarch as she received treatment and recovered from colon cancer.
Two more seasons followed, but by 2005, the family decided to reclaim some level of privacy. “The level of success that TV show got us was too much,” Ozzy told NME in 2020. “I had to bow out. I said to Sharon: ‘I don’t like the way it makes me feel, and I can’t stand f––ing cameramen in my house.’ I’m not upset that I did it, but I wouldn’t do it again.”
Even so, Sharon, Ozzy, Kelly, and Jack did eventually reunite for The Osbournes Podcast in 2018. They shared insights into their lives and discussed their takes on the cultural zeitgeist. After a five-year hiatus, they returned to the recording studio in 2023 and 2024.
The Sharon Osbourne Show
As The Osbournes was raising Sharon’s public profile, she furthered her television career by hosting her own daytime talk show. The Sharon Osbourne Show lasted from 2003 to 2004 in the United States and was later revived in Great Britain. In 2006, she released the incredibly candid, best-selling book Sharon Osbourne Extreme: My Autobiography.
The X Factor and America’s Got Talent
Osbourne’s next TV gig harnessed her background as a music manager and promoter. From 2004 to 2007, she served as one of the original judges on the British talent show The X Factor. She reprised her role on the reality competition series in 2013—when her mentee Sam Bailey won—and again from 2016 to 2017.
Following her first departure from The X Factor, Osbourne took her judging and mentoring chops across the pond to America’s Got Talent. She served as a judge on the competition show for six seasons, from 2007 to 2012.
The Talk
At the start of 2010, Osbourne became a competitor herself on Season 3 of The Celebrity Apprentice hosted by real estate magnate Donald Trump. The British businesswoman battled against the likes of Joan Rivers, Cyndi Lauper, and ultimate winner Bret Michaels for a chance to win money for charity. The year continued to be busy for Osbourne who released her debut novel, Revenge, in the United Kingdom that March.
Then in the fall of 2010, the TV veteran returned to American daytime programming as one of the original co-hosts of The Talk. Osbourne remained on the CBS talk show for more than a decade until her controversial and abrupt exit in 2021 following misconduct and racist allegations. In the wake of the on-air dustup, Osbourne said she was mad at the network for not adequately preparing her to talk about the fallout of Meghan Markle’s recent interview with Oprah in which the actor discussed her and Prince Harry’s split from the British royal family and her mental health.
Colon Cancer
In July 2002, when she was 49, Osbourne was diagnosed with colon cancer. Just months earlier, The Osbournes reality show had premiered to incredible success. The family hadn’t yet started filming the second season when Osbourne received her diagnosis. Rather than cancel the show, however, she allowed cameras to film her treatment.
“I didn’t want my kids and my husband to know how sick I was,” Osbourne later shared about her decision to continue with the TV show. “At that point, cancer wasn’t the same as it is now. So everybody always thought it was a death sentence, and I didn’t want my kids to have fear constantly surrounding them.”
Osbourne had surgery and eventually entered remission. After her recovery, she established the Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Foundation to help other people battling the disease.
In 2012, the TV personality and music manager chose to have a preventative double mastectomy after discovering she carried a gene for breast cancer. “For me, it wasn’t a big decision, it was a no-brainer,” then-60-year-old said. “I didn’t want to live the rest of my life with that shadow hanging over me. I want to be around for a long time.”
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